11 designers tell us about what their collections for Amazon India Fashion Week are about

As Delhi gears up for the autumn/winter ’16 edition of Amazon India Fashion Week starting this week, we talk to these designers to get a whiff of what the new season looks like.

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Gaurav Gupta

“The thought behind the collection originated from the awareness of climate change and is an attempt from me to be a bit more ecological. The collection is called ‘Melt’. Climate change is a living reality for us. The over-thinking of that reality made me dwell into how things melt and that’s what inspired this collection. There is a feeling of melancholic apocalypse in the collection.Some of the garments in this collection are zero-waste garments where we have tried to use our draping techniques in a way that there is no wastage of fabric.”

Gaurav Gupta

“We’ve also explored the flared empire silhouettes and flock-coat gowns, which would be really interesting for winter. We’ve used boning techniques a step forward by sculpting them around the body with the melting effect of bugle beads and different metallic embellishments that give the garment a very fluid structure.”-Gaurav Gupta

Hemant & Nandita

“With travel such a big focus of our lives, most of our collections mirror our experiences at our travel destinations. This season, we were inspired by our recent weekend trip to the mountains. Taking from the foliage of the woods, we have used a lot of jacquard fabrics to highlight the layers in the looks.”

Hemant & Nandita

“Brushed wool and tweed are also some of the key materials we have used for the outerwear. The mood is deep, dense and dark, which is reflected by the colours we have used for the collection.” – Nandita Raipurani

Rimzim Dadu

“For the last two years that I did not show on the ramp, I wanted to explore every technique I had worked on in the past more extensively. Now that I have a better understanding of my own surface developments, I think the time is right for me to show again.”

Rimzim Dadu

“The focus is going to be on the process—there is no theme as such, but it’s more about research and conveying ideas through these processes. This season I have tried to use my existing techniques, but to make it [the collection] more approachable and more retail-friendly for stores.” – Rimzim Dadu

Grassroot by Anita Dongre

“Our collection ​for the season, The Earth Song, captures the beautiful colours of the earth as leaves turn to the hues of dusk, and nature plays a deep, soulful and resonant song. The entire collection celebrates earthy block prints. The fabrics have been dyed with vegetable colours, and multiple blocks mixed and layered to create interesting patterns.”

Grassroot by Anita Dongre

“The prints have then been enhanced with brush strokes by hand in gold or metal, and glass beads. Patchwork and kantha stitches have been extensively used. The styles are contemporary and each piece is priced separately and can be worn in many ways besides how it’s shown on the ramp. They are timeless pieces and are versatile in their wear.” – Anita Dongre

Pankaj & Nidhi

“We are doing a collection inspired by vintage military—think of the Imperial German Army and the Hussars. It is our interpretation of military-meets-cocktail dressing. We have outerwear of course—riders’ capes, a few jackets, but there has been a conscious effort to incorporate dresses. The colour palette is all in rich tones of olives, greens, mustard, ochre and deep wine reds. We have made use of military insignia. It’s a little decorative, it has bits of camouflage and rustic jewel embroidery. The embroidery is engineered like how you’d see in a uniform and you can you can expect lots of fringe detailing inspired by epaulettes.” – Pankaj Ahuja

Ikai by Ragini Ahuja

“This fall we take a journey through an illustrator’s notebook. The season embraces the hand-done pen-and-paper illustrations against a grid-and-stripe background. We cruise through original artworks of animals and autumn leaves. The minute details from the notebook along with the illustrations in a staid palette of paper brown, charcoal and black with wild ginger accent evoke nostalgia and warmth.”

LoveBirds

“This season is again very minimalist but there are bits of geometry. We are introducing L-B, our new label, which is a more formal line. We have used handwoven silks from Benaras, knits from Kullu and block printing from Gujarat. It’s very graphic this time.”

LoveBirds

“The colours are bit brighter than what we do—there are reds, ochres, greys. It’s a formal collection that starts with easier pieces in cotton poplins but it gets more luxe. The handwoven knits are mostly unisex pieces.” – Amrita Khanna

Bodice by Ruchika Sachdeva

“My starting point for this season was aprons. A big part of Bodice is about making clothes for the working women. When I think of aprons, I think of all of my friends who are potters, painters, cooks. I thought the act of putting on an apron is like you are going to make something. The idea of an apron is not to directly take from the shape but to also highlight the idea of layering and utility because of the pockets.”

Bodice by Ruchika Sachdeva

“We have gone a little dark with our colours this time so its blue, black, green and grey. We have made use of natural dyes—beautiful indigo for the blue, an iron-based dye for the grey and also a natural brown that we mix with copper for yellow flowers. Besides that, there is use of handloom. As designers we have a responsibility to use sustainable fabrics in a way to make them covetable. We are doing a lot of jackets, even more trousers—which is always a challenge but I enjoy making them a lot. I have also reinterpreted the classic collar. I worked really hard to make details that my team thinks don’t even show!” – Ruchika Sachdeva

Anavila

“The collection is called ‘Folk’ it’s about a muse who is travelling through time and collecting inspirations. The look is very artisans and detailed.”

Anavila

“You will see a lot more constructed garments this season with knits and jackets, printed trousers and wool kaftans. We blended linen with muga silk, lotus yarn and wool to create beautiful winter saris.” – Anavila Misra

Ekà

“I strongly feel the future lies in the hands of human intuition with creativity at its core. There’s a need to reconnect with our instinct in the world that’s going more and more technical everyday.It is time to revive our spirit and go back full circle to nurture the instinct. The A/W’16 theme explores design with this intention.

I am a designer who works primarily on textiles and surfaces every season as a starting point and then grow the textures together to formulate looks. This season’s textiles are all stripes, circles, polka prints and chambray in wool, silk and linen blends. The linen is interwoven with metallic stripes combined with herringbone, forming lustrous surfaces.”

Ekà

“These are inspired by the artworks of Philippe Decrauzat, Jeppe Hein, Alfonso Artiaco and John Paul Phillips. The bleeding stripes, reflective images in the mirror art works in circles and earthy opulence in the use of metallics in artefacts gives a new direction to otherwise sombre and earthy imagery that Ekà is known for.” – Rina Singh

Péro

“For the mood of the season we were looking at Pipi Longstocking—an adventurous girl of nine. We’ve written a story about how she doesn’t like to go school but she likes to venture out. We were working with gingham and we thought there was a lot of opportunity in exploring it in different parts of India. We did all the cottons in West Bengal and all the woolens were developed in Himachal, mixing angora with pashmina. Usually fabric is the starting point for us and when we saw everything together we looked at embroidering 3D poppies.”

Péro

“There’s a lot of hand-knitted sweaters, oversized jackets in wool. We are also starting a new line called ‘Moja Péro’, and since Pipi hates wearing two of the same socks, it’ll always be a pack of three in which any two can we worn together. We have collaborated All Things Chocolate. We always give something to eat before the show and since it’s about life in school and mothers sometimes slip in a bar of chocolate with the snack box we thought everything ties in very beautifully. Along with the packaging we have created the flavor—it’s Belgian chocolate with poppy seeds and it’s called All Things Chequered.” – Aneeth Arora